Photos from Blanchard Springs Caverns
Jun. 29th, 2014 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hillarygayleHere are some really cool photos from our trip to Blanchard Springs Caverns. If I had an easy outlet from a cave, I could absolutely live in one. The Ghost Room near the end of the tour was AWESOME, and will definitely make a good Throne Room someday. ;)
Formation
The stairs in one of the first rooms we visited. We had to go all the way DOWN these stairs...meaning you know the rest of the walk was an incline and punctuated at the end by a set of stairs the guides referred to as "heart attack hill".
Names & dates of some of the first cave explorers. Robert Hanford was a Boy Scout who went with one of the first scientific expeditions. Because he was the only person small enough to fit through one particular pass, he ended up discovering an entire room on his own.
I loved seeing all these women's names on the walls where the first expedition had camped. Exploring this cave in the 50s & 60s was NOT easy; they used carbide flashlights, they had to drop down through the original entrance, etc. It's pretty badass, and these ladies did it during a time when ladies were not always thought to be capable enough for this.
The formation in the bottom center, slightly right gives the room its name. The trail of amber lights across the back wall shows the route used by the explorers who originally discovered the room. Mr. Hanford the Boy Scout (Bryan stated during the tour "I sure hope he got his Eagle Rank" for all this!) said he sat right along the trail of lights, with his legs hanging off, and ate his lunch. Due to the limitations of flashlights at the time, they didn't really realize how much of a drop that was.
Let's all go back in a couple of hundred years & watch this stalactite & stalagmite officially form a column!
The largest flowstone in North America.
This view is my favorite one of the flowstone, with that gorgeous emerald pool at the base.
The Ghost Room, otherwise known as my future Throne Room. My throne, which will be carved from limestone & studded with quartz, will sit right in front of that big, sparkling white calcite formation.
More of my throne room:
Underground River!
Some of the original explorers used this trail through this room, which is very steep. They were basically clinging to a wall here. This is also the site (up near the blue light) of the only remains ever found in the cave. They were about a thousand years old when they were found, & were determined to be a young Native American man. The reeds he used for his torch were found with him. I forgot to ask whatever happened to his remains.
Exploring the cave "back in the day" involved a sheer 75 foot drop down this hole, apparently accomplished in a car tire swing!
Formation
The stairs in one of the first rooms we visited. We had to go all the way DOWN these stairs...meaning you know the rest of the walk was an incline and punctuated at the end by a set of stairs the guides referred to as "heart attack hill".
Names & dates of some of the first cave explorers. Robert Hanford was a Boy Scout who went with one of the first scientific expeditions. Because he was the only person small enough to fit through one particular pass, he ended up discovering an entire room on his own.
I loved seeing all these women's names on the walls where the first expedition had camped. Exploring this cave in the 50s & 60s was NOT easy; they used carbide flashlights, they had to drop down through the original entrance, etc. It's pretty badass, and these ladies did it during a time when ladies were not always thought to be capable enough for this.
The formation in the bottom center, slightly right gives the room its name. The trail of amber lights across the back wall shows the route used by the explorers who originally discovered the room. Mr. Hanford the Boy Scout (Bryan stated during the tour "I sure hope he got his Eagle Rank" for all this!) said he sat right along the trail of lights, with his legs hanging off, and ate his lunch. Due to the limitations of flashlights at the time, they didn't really realize how much of a drop that was.
Let's all go back in a couple of hundred years & watch this stalactite & stalagmite officially form a column!
The largest flowstone in North America.
This view is my favorite one of the flowstone, with that gorgeous emerald pool at the base.
The Ghost Room, otherwise known as my future Throne Room. My throne, which will be carved from limestone & studded with quartz, will sit right in front of that big, sparkling white calcite formation.
More of my throne room:
Underground River!
Some of the original explorers used this trail through this room, which is very steep. They were basically clinging to a wall here. This is also the site (up near the blue light) of the only remains ever found in the cave. They were about a thousand years old when they were found, & were determined to be a young Native American man. The reeds he used for his torch were found with him. I forgot to ask whatever happened to his remains.
Exploring the cave "back in the day" involved a sheer 75 foot drop down this hole, apparently accomplished in a car tire swing!
